7 ms·

I read a good article some time ago about how as long as we gravitate towards symbolic and emotional / headline-grabbing solutions, we will feel good and think

I read a good article some time ago about how as long as we gravitate towards symbolic and emotional / headline-grabbing solutions, we will feel good and think that we've solved problems, but end up having made little progress. These problems have taken decades to mature (or even are an endemic part of how a system is), and it's a bit naive to think that some quick fix will undo them. Rent control, affirmative action, drug policy, wealth disparity -- all of these have headline-grabbing proposed solutions (often with heated protests) but when it comes down to it (and you observe after a few months), people vote with their $ and behavior according to deeper considerations on the choices they actually want. While people may say (or appear to) be in support of whatever cause-of-the-moment grabs the headlines, when it actually costs them (or their kids), they will not do what you hoped.

bitexploder 5y ago
> I read a good article some time ago about how as long as we gravitate towards symbolic and emotional / headline-grabbing solutions, we will feel good and think that we've solved problems, but end up having made little progress. Or, to say it another way, as long as we tolerate politics that are basically just performance art nothing changes.
- CountSessine 5y ago
  I don’t think that I would say it that way at all. The parent comment simply makes the point that people vote with their own interests in mind, but say otherwise as long as it doesn’t cost them. We don’t just “tolerate” performance art politics - we actively encourage and vote for it because the alternatives are expensive and unpalatable. It’s much more comfortable to “blame profits” or “blame campaign financing” or blame Jeff Bezos or blame capitalism than to acknowledge that in a city that maximizes global utility and wellness, you might not have the right to keep poor people from living near you.
pydry 5y ago
It isnt voting that kills off these things. It's campaign financing. Profit friendly "solutions" tend to get given prominence (e.g. a new mental health clinic or two) over profit-unfriendly solutions that actually work (e.g. rent control, building competing housing that decreases the value of existing stock). It's not really about voter preferences, though. It's about $$$. If you genuinely believe that homelessness is primarily solved with obviously palliative solutions like mental health clinics then you're probably quite a credulous person. The people touting these ideas certainly know they dont work and if there were more money in actually building housing they'd guide you to believe that instead.

bitexploder 5y ago

> I read a good article some time ago about how as long as we gravitate towards symbolic and emotional / headline-grabbing solutions, we will feel good and think that we've solved problems, but end up having made little progress. Or, to say it another way, as long as we tolerate politics that are basically just performance art nothing changes.

CountSessine 5y ago
I don’t think that I would say it that way at all. The parent comment simply makes the point that people vote with their own interests in mind, but say otherwise as long as it doesn’t cost them. We don’t just “tolerate” performance art politics - we actively encourage and vote for it because the alternatives are expensive and unpalatable. It’s much more comfortable to “blame profits” or “blame campaign financing” or blame Jeff Bezos or blame capitalism than to acknowledge that in a city that maximizes global utility and wellness, you might not have the right to keep poor people from living near you.

pydry 5y ago

It isnt voting that kills off these things. It's campaign financing. Profit friendly "solutions" tend to get given prominence (e.g. a new mental health clinic or two) over profit-unfriendly solutions that actually work (e.g. rent control, building competing housing that decreases the value of existing stock). It's not really about voter preferences, though. It's about $$$. If you genuinely believe that homelessness is primarily solved with obviously palliative solutions like mental health clinics then you're probably quite a credulous person. The people touting these ideas certainly know they dont work and if there were more money in actually building housing they'd guide you to believe that instead.